Maggie and Ruth were speechless as to what they’ve seen. “I saw that black dinosaur before,” Maggie said while trembling in fear. “And I’ve also heard that voice somewhere too...”

“It turned into a Macroplocedraco!” Ruth exclaimed. “Whatever it did, must’ve left a horrible impact on those poor people...”

Cornelius continued, “I just wanted to let you realize that they’re not bad, but if I had noticed and done anything to try and help them, then none of this would’ve happened...”

“But wait, why are you telling us all of this, grandpa?” Ruth asked. “How do we put a stop to—?”

“Do you think he’d know the answer to that despite foolishly not going for—?”

“I heard that there is a way to stop her,” Cornelius interrupted Maggie. “But—” The orb cracked up as the vision disappeared from their sight.

“Huh? Hey!” Maggie called out, shaking the object. When nothing responded, she lowered her head and sighed sadly.

“Aw man, now what do we do?” Ruth pondered.

“Why were those guys doing that? I thought nobody helped my dad, nor did they like...”

“Well, what if the people were just jealous,” A voice guessed from a distance, “And wanted to be just as creative as your father?”

Maggie turned as the source of the sound stood in front of her. “Larry, what are you doing here?” The man looked and acted strangely. Something didn’t seem right about him, the way he stared them down and the way his tone of voice inflected. “And how would you know about my dad? Are you ok—?”

Larry’s frown turned into a small smile. “Do you want to know?”

Maggie took a step back as Ruth stayed beside her in fear. “Who — What are you?”

“Pay close attention and have a look at this.” Larry pulled the sleeve off his shirt to reveal a strange symbol of a tattoo on his arm. Ruth covered his mouth while Maggie gaped her mouth open. “My name is not Larry, it’s Paphet. I lied about what I said before, but I’m a royal guard descended and determined to protect Queen Aehaby.”

“Wait,” Maggie shook her head. “Are you telling me the real reason you came here is that of...?”.

“Well, I didn’t intend to get stuck here on purpose!” Paphet remarked.

“Oh, really now?”

“Yeah, you can blame it all on Kira. Ask her Majesty about it.”

“But who is she, and where can we find this woman?”

“Well, if you want to know, I can tell you, but I’m afraid that is classified.”

Maggie tilted her head by that response, but when she let the words sink in, her eyes widened upon realizing it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“Oh no, don’t tell me...”

.-.-.-.

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the underground caverns, Tommy and Amy laid there restlessly in the patches of snow on the floor.

Just then, a being wrapped around in light appeared above their heads. The figure turned out to be Bertha, who looked down at their hurt bodies, covered in bruises, scars, and wounds, frowned upon seeing the calamity.

“Oh my, you’re both hurt. I got to do something about this.” She said to herself.

Bertha then thought up an idea. The Orso Looba unleashed a few power orbs from her paws and placed them inside their bodies, praying for the two to get up.

“There, that’s all the power I can give to you two. I hope you make it out, ok. Please, you’re our only hope of restoring peace and salvation for all lands. I wish you the best of luck.”

She soon disappeared. Tommy moved his finger as he opened his eyes and slowly trudged out of the floor and looked around the area. When he noticed Amy, he went over to give her a nudge to try and wake her up. Eventually, Amy woke up and saw Tommy glancing over at her.

After exchanging some pleasantries, Tommy asked if she knew where they were now. To which she replied that they must be inside another cave.

“Great, just great,” Tommy said in a bitter tone.

“I think we should find a way out of here, and I might know how to do just that. But first, we need to find Larry, in case he gets down here as well.” Amy informed him.

“Where can we locate the guy? If he was here, how could—?”

“We should call Larry via the walkie-talkie in case he still has it.”

“Ok...” Tommy inhaled and exhaled as he tried to hold back the tears from streaming down his face.

Amy noticed him feeling blue, walked over to put her hand on his shoulder, and tried to reassure him.

“Don’t worry about it; it’s not your fault. I mean, at the very least, we got the gem at our disposal...”

Tommy wiped his eyes and nodded in agreement. He reached down into his pocket to bring it out, but couldn’t feel anything inside. He checked on all of his pockets to search all over for the gem as Amy looked over nervously, trying to keep up her smile.

“...Right?”

“Um, I’m pretty sure I had it, so why...?” Tommy inquired.

“This can’t be. I was so sure you had the gem, and I saw it with my own eyes!”

“Oh no, I must’ve lost it while out in the blizzard, and Antonio took it away from me before he...”

“Ugh, that son of a...”

“Hey, where are you guys?” The two heard Paphet call out. “Are you around here?”

“Yeah, we’re over here!” Amy exclaimed. In front of her, Paphet walked out of an area, along with Maggie and Ruth.

“Hi, it’s great that we reunited again,” Paphet said. “Why the long face? Were you feeling—?”

“Not now.” Amy glanced to glare at Maggie and Ruth. “What are you two doing here? You were supposed to have—” Ruth whispered to her what had happened that led them to arrive here. “Say what?! Oh shoot, we need to get to the pylon ASAP!”

“But, shouldn’t you also be worried about the gem?” Maggie asked.

“Well, uh, they only got one,” Amy hesitated, “And we have more so far, we got to rest back in the base for the time being, however.”

“But how—?” Tommy was about to ask.

“I know a shortcut we can try out.” Amy proposed, wielding a device depicting a rectangle. “This is an invention I created called the Pylon Seeker; with this, we’ll be able to get there in no time at all.”

“You know, usually when someone says that, the opposite happens.” Maggie pointed out.

Then, immediately afterward, Amy came across a wall with a faint glow behind it. Touching the wall, it broke apart and separated itself from the others. In their front view, a monolith stood in the center of the room with the ceiling torn apart, and the light shone down on it.

“Oh, well, never mind then,” Maggie stated.

The group headed over to the pylon to try and reactivate it to see if it’s still operational. While doing so, Tommy stood on the sidelines, muttering something to himself about something. Only Maggie had noticed he mentioned it.

“Huh, did you say something, Tom—?”

“Hey, the pylon still works, let’s get going.” Amy proclaimed.

Maggie and Tommy nodded in agreement. She waited until later to ask or bring up the conversation from before.